Problems connecting using ahteros based wireless card

[Stefan Zechmeister <stefan zechmeister gmx at>]

Hello!

i have problems using networkmanager with my atheros based wireless card
(built in wlan in ibm thinkpad t41).

the madwifi drivers seem to work, but networkmanager does not get a
connection:

iwconfig reports: 

ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"ESSID"  Nickname:"NICK"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.472 GHz  Access Point: 00:09:5B:CC:BF:BA
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:50 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XX   Security
          mode:restricted Power Management:off
          Link Quality=33/94  Signal level=-62 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm Rx
          invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0 Tx
          excessive retries:349  Invalid misc:349   Missed beacon:0

so the card did already associate with the accesspoint! (a netgear
wgr614v4).

here is the log of networkmanager:

NetworkManager: starting...
NetworkManager: eth0: Driver support level is fully-supported
NetworkManager: nm_device_new(): waiting for device's worker thread to start.
NetworkManager: nm_device_new(): device's worker thread started, continuing.
NetworkManager: Adding device 'eth0' (wired) to our list.
NetworkManager: ath0: Driver support level is fully-supported
NetworkManager: nm_device_new(): waiting for device's worker thread to start.
NetworkManager: nm_device_new(): device's worker thread started, continuing.
NetworkManager: Adding device 'ath0' (wireless) to our list.
NetworkManager:     SWITCH: best device changed
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0) started...
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): access point 'ESSID' is
encrypted, and a key exists.  No new key needed. NetworkManager:
Activation (ath0/wireless): using essid 'ESSID', with Open System
authentication. NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): no hardware
link to 'ESSID' in Open System mode, trying Shared Key. NetworkManager:
Activation (ath0/wireless): using essid 'ESSID', with Shared Key
authentication. NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): no hardware
link to 'ESSID' in Shared Key mode, trying another access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0/wireless): waiting for an access point.
NetworkManager: Caught SIGINT/SIGTERM NetworkManager: Caught terminiation
signal NetworkManager: nm_device_activation_cancel(ath0): cancelling...
NetworkManager: nm_device_activation_worker(ath0): activation canceled.
NetworkManager: nm_device_activation_worker(ath0): activation canceled.
NetworkManager: Activation (ath0) ended. NetworkManager:
nm_device_activation_cancel(ath0): cancelled.

so networkmanager seems to find the right accesspoint and also determines
that i'm using encryption with shared keys. the networkmanager applet
already stored the key within gconf (btw. why is this key stored human
readable in gconf and not for example in gnome-keyring?).
but then networkmanager tells me that no hardware link is present?
why that? if manually configure the card (ifconfig ipaddr etc.) everthing
works great! why does networkmanager think there is no link?

what i'm using:
- Fedora Core 3 (all updates applied)
- NetworkManager from 20050124
- madwifi driver snapshot from today (+patch to get the correct quality
when scanning)
- wireless tools 28pre4 (these include some madwifi based fixes. now
scanning using iwlist finally works using the madwifi drivers).

any hints? what can i do to get networkmanager working?

bye
stefan